A  BRIEF  SKETCH 


OF   THE 


HISTORY 


OF 


KING'S  CHAPEL. 


i898 


DttiiusteT. 
Rev.   HOWARD   N.   BROWN. 


Mr.  ARTHUR  T.  LYMAN. 
Mr.  CHARLES  P.  CURTIS. 

Mr.  B.  J.  LANG,  Organist. 
Mrs.  ALICE  BATES  RICE,  Soprano.        Mr.  W.  J.  WINCH,  Tenor. 
Miss  LENA  LITTLE,  Alto.  Mr.  MAX  HEINRICH,  Bass 


Seduces. 

Sunday,  10.30  a.m.     Regular  Morning  Service. 

Sunday,     3.  30  p.m.      Musical  Service  with  short  sermon.      All  seats  are  free, 
and  the  public  is  cordially  invited. 

Wednesday,  12  m.      Half-hour  Mid-week  Service  conducted  by  Ministers 
of  different  denominations.      All  seats  free. 

Regular  Services  Christmas  Day  and  Good  Friday,  11  a.m. 

Daily  Services  during  the   week,   before   Easter,  of  which  special  announce- 
ment is  made. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2013  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://archive.org/details/briefsOOking 


1  ':1 

Communion    Rail  IJ$4 

I  N  G  '  S  C  H  A  P  E  L,r  so  called  because  during  the 
colonial  period  it  represented  in  Boston  the  State 
Church  of  England,  and  was  the  place  where 
successive  Royal  Governors  were  accustomed  to 
worship,  was  founded  June  15,  1686.  It  was  the 
first  Episcopal  church  in  New  England.  In  the  early  days  of 
the  colony  there  were  laws  against  the  solemnization  of  mar- 
riages bv  anv  save  civil  magistrates,  and  other  laws  denouncing 
fines  against  those  who  should  be  found  observing  "  any  such 
day  as  Christmas  or  the  like."  Erom  the  first  the  new  church 
was  a  powerful  influence  in  softening  the  hard  manners  and 
customs  of  Puritanism. 

The  first  minister  was  Rev.  Robert  Ratcliffe,  who  came  over 
from  England  to  establish  the  church.  He  was  an  orator  and 
preacher  of  much  power,  and  soon  won  a  considerable  following. 
Services  were  held  for  some  months  in  the  town  house ;  and 
then  the  governor,  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  compelled  the  officers 
of  what  is  now  known  as  the  Old  South  to  admit  the  new  con- 
gregation to  its  meeting-house  for  service  during  some  part  of 
ever)  Sunday.  This  joint  occupancy  continued,  not  without 
bitterness  of  feeling,  for  about  two  years.  During  this  time  the 
wardens  were  trying  to  secure  land  for  the  building  of  a  church. 
No   one    possessing    land   suitable   for  the    purpose   would   sell. 


Finally,  the  governor  and  council  conveyed  to  the  church  a  cor- 
ner of  the  burying-ground.  Here  a  modest  wooden  building 
was  erected,  which  was  first  used  for  divine  service  June  30, 
1689;    and  here  King's  Chapel  has  stood  ever  since. 

Mr.  Ratcliffe  returned  to  England  that  same  year,  being  suc- 
ceeded in  office  bv  Rev.  Samuel  Myles.  This  gentleman  was 
American  born,  the  son  of  a  Baptist  minister,  and  a  graduate  of 
Harvard  College  in  the  class  of  1684.  He  continued  to  be  the 
minister  of  the  church  for  thirty-nine  years.  In  1696,  returning 
from  a  visit  to  England,  he  brought  with  him  substantial  gifts 
of  communion  plate  and  altar  furnishings  from  King  William 
III.  After  this  communion  plate  had  been  in  use  about  seventy 
years,  a  new  service  was  given  by  King  George  III.  The  older 
plate  was  then  given  away  to  various  churches,  a  flagon  and 
chalice  still  being  held  by  Christ  Church,  Cambridge.  King 
William,  a  little  later,  gave  to  the  church  a  large  theological 
library.  This  was  partly  scattered  during  the  Revolution,  and 
what  remained  of  it  was  finally  deposited  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum. 
In  17 10  the  town  of  Boston,  by  vote  in  town  meeting,  granted 
the  church  more  land  on  which  to  enlarge  its  building.  The 
enlarged  church  contained  the  first  organ  heard  in  New  Eng- 
land, the  gift  of  Thomas  Brattle,  Esq.,  a  Boston  merchant. 
This  organ  was  afterward  taken  to  St.  John's  Church,  Ports- 
mouth, where  it  is  still  in  use.  One  of  the  most  important  in- 
cidents of  the  close  of  Mr.  Myles's  ministry  was  the  laying  by 
him  of  the  corner-stone  of  Christ  Church  (on  Salem  Street), 
which  had  been  founded  as  an  offshoot  from  King's  Chapel.  He 
died  in  office  in  1728. 

The  next  minister  was  Rev.  Roger  Price,  "  Mr.  Commissary 
Price,"  as  he  was  generally  called,  because  he  held  a  commission 
from  the  Bishop  of  London  to  exercise  a  certain  oversight  of  the 
Episcopal  churches,  which  by  this  time  had  sprung  up  in  other 
parts  of  the  colony.  There  was  a  curious  ceremony  at  his 
induction  into  office.  After  his  credentials  had  been  read  in 
church,  all  the  people  present  "went  out  of  the  church,  the 
church  wardens  at  the  door  delivering  the  key  of  the  church  to 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Price,  who,  locking  himself  into  the  church,  tolled 
the  bell,  and  then  unlocked  the  door  of  the  church,  receiving  the 
church  wardens  and  vestrymen  into  the  church  again,  who 
wished  him  joy  upon  his  having  possession  of  the  church."  This 
was  the  common  ceremony  of  the  time  in  the  English  Church. 
In  1734  Mr.  Price  laid  the  corner-stone  of  Trinity  Church,  a 
second  offshoot  from  King's  Chapel.  For  four  years  after  that 
building    was    erected    the    minister   of    King's    Chapel    and    his 


assistant,  in  addition  to  their  regular  duties,  held  services  in 
Trinity  Church,  after  which  time  the  new  organization  became 
independent  of  the  mother  church. 

Mr.  Price  resigned  in  1746;  and  the  following  year,  without 
consulting  the  Bishop  of  London,  the  church  chose  the  Rev. 
Henry  Caner  to  be  its  minister.  He  had  been  for  twenty  years 
in  charge  of  an  Episcopal  church  in  Fairfield,  Conn.  His  first 
work  was  to  take  up  and  carry  forward  to  completion  the  task 
of  building  a  new  stone  church,  which  had  been  talked  about 
for  some  years.  Money  was  subscribed  in  Boston  and  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  the  corner-stone  was  laid  bv  Governor  Shirley  with 
becoming  ceremony  Aug.  II,  1749.  The  architect  was  Peter 
Harrison,  an  English  gentleman  then  living  in  Rhode  Island, 
after  whose  design  the  Redwood  Library  in  Newport  was  also 
built.  The  building  of  the  church  took  some  time,  and  it  was 
not  occupied  for  worship  till  the  summer  of  1754.  The  pulpit 
of  the  old  church  was  transferred  to  the  new.  This  pulpit,  now 
preached  from  every  Sunday,  was  certainly  made  as  early  as 
1  7  1  7,  though  it  docs  not  appear  whether  it  dates  back  to  the 
completion  of  the  first  building  in  1689.  It  is  undoubtedly  the 
oldest  pulpit  now  in  use  in  New  England,  in  the  place  where 
it  was  first  erected. 

The  pews  now  numbered  31  and  32  together  made  the  Gov- 
ernor's Pew,  which  was  surmounted  bv  a  canopy.  Here  sat  in 
succession  Governors  Shirley,  Pownall,  Bernard,  Hutchinson,  and, 
finally,  General  Gage  and  Sir  William  Howe  during  the  early 
part  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle.  Sir  Henry  Frankland,  the 
collector  of  customs,  whose  connection  with  the  romantic  story 
of  Agnes  Surriage  has  made  his  name  widely  known  in  later 
times,  was  one  of  the  proprietors  of  King's  Chapel  when  the 
present  building  was  erected,  and  occupied  pew  number  20.  In 
1756  a  new  organ  was  procured  from  England.  There  is  a 
tradition,  very  probably  true,  that  this  organ  was  selected  and 
played  upon  by  Handel.  It  is  known  that  the  great  musician 
was  an  intimate  friend  to  the  king,  and  that  the  latter  was  much 
interested  in  King's  Chape/.  This  organ  has  been  rebuilt  and 
enlarged  from  time  to  time,  but  has  never  been  wholly  removed. 
Its  original  ornaments,  the  mitre  and  crown,  were  taken  away 
for  a  season  after  the  Revolution,  but  have   been   since  restored. 

At  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  between  the  colony  and  Eng- 
land the  society  worshipping  in  King's  Chape/  was  divided. 
"  Of  seventy-three  pews,  thirty  were  occupied  bv  Loyalists  and 
forty-three  by  those  of  the  Patriotic,  or  American  party."  Dr. 
Caner  was  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  king,  as  was  very  natural 


ar  j 


in  the  case  of  a  man  with  his  training  who  had  come 
to  be  seventy-seven  years  of  age.  When  the  British 
troops  evacuated  Boston,  most  of  these  Lovalist  families 
went  with  them.  Dr.  Caner  and  eighteen  other  clergy- 
men of  the  Episcopal  Church  sailed  awav  with  the 
fleet.  The  minister  of  King's  Chapel,  influenced  no 
doubt  bv  a  very  honest  but  a  somewhat  peculiar  sense 
of  dutv,  took  with  him  all  the  communion  plate  belong- 
ing to  the  church.  This  has  never  been  recovered, 
and  was  probablv  distributed  among  other  churches  in 
America  bv  the  English  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel.  The  assistant  minister  of  Trinity  Church 
being  the  onlv  minister  of  that  faith  left  in  Boston, 
what  remained  of  the  King's  Chapel  congregation  wor- 
shipped there  for  a  time ;  and  the  use  of  the  Chapel 
was  given  to  the  Old  South  Church,  whose  building 
had  been  made  uninhabitable  bv  the  British  troops. 
The  funeral  of  Dr.  Warren,  who  had  been  killed  at 
Bunker  Hill,  was  held  here  in  April,  1776. 

After  the  Old  South  congregation  had  gone  back 
to  its  own  church,  the  wardens  of  King's  Chapel  took 
steps  to  resume  their  interrupted  services.  The  senior 
warden  at  this  time  was  Dr.  Thomas  Bulfinch,  the 
father  of  the  famous  architect  who  built  the  State 
House,  and  a  very  notable  man.  In  1782  the  church 
invited  Mr.  James  Freeman  to  serve  for  a  time  as  lay 
reader.  He  was  a  young  man  who  had  preached  a 
few  times,  but  had  never  been  ordained.  He  accepted 
the  invitation,  and  thus  began  a  ministry  which  lasted 
fifty-two  years.  Those  who  were  left  after  the  de- 
parture of  the  Loyalists  were  liberal  in  their  ten- 
dencies, and  Mr.  Freeman  was  of  the  same  wav  of 
thinking.  The  pews  of  the  Loyalists  were  taken  by 
the  church,  being  forfeited  bv  the  conditions  of  the 
deeds  under  which  they  were  held,  and  were  sold  to 
others.  For  three  years  Mr.  Freeman  continued  to 
preach,  becoming  more  and  more  decided  in  his  oppo- 
sition to  the  doctrinal  standards  of  the  past,  until  in 
1785  the  congregation  voted  to  make  certain  changes 
in  its  Prayer  Book  corresponding  to  the  alteration  of 
its  views.  The  work  was  carried  out  under  the  super- 
vision of  a  committee  appointed  for  the  purpose,  and 
the  new  book  was  published  that  same  vear.  The 
alterations   consisted    largely    in    leaving   out    all    refer- 


cnces    to    the    Trinity.      In    effect,   the    first    Episcopal    church 

planted  in  New  England  thus  declared  itself  the  first  Unitarian 
church  in  this  country.  Apparently,  the  authors  of  this  change- 
entertained  a  hope  at  the  time  that  other  Episcopal  churches 
would  follow  their  example,  and  did  not  suppose  that  they  had 
created  a  breach  between  themselves  and  others.  But  when,  a 
little  later,  Mr.  Freeman  sought  ordination,  in  order  that  he 
might  perform  the  marriage  ceremony  and  administer  the  sacra- 
ments, it  was  found  that  no  bishop  would  confer  ordination  upon 
him.  In  1 787,  therefore,  the  church  proceeded  to  ordain  Mr. 
Freeman  for  itself,  in  accordance  with  Congregational  usage ; 
and  this  right  it  has  since  held  so  jealously  that  it  has  permitted 
no  other  church  to  take  part  in  the  installation  of  its  ministers. 
Mr.  Freeman  had  a  long  and  honored  ministry,  and  many  of  the 
foremost  families  of  Boston  belonged  to  his  congregation.  In 
1789  there  was  a  concert  of  sacred  music  in  King's  Chapel, 
at  which  General  Washington,  then  President,  was  present. 
When  the  Handel  and  Haydn  Society  was  formed  in  1815, 
seven  of  its  earlier  concerts  were  given  in  King's  Chape/. 

The  later  ministers  have  been  Rev.  F.  W.  P.  Greenwood, 
settled  1824,  died  1843;  Rev.  Ephraim  Peabody,  settled  1846, 
died  1856;  Rev.  Henry  Wilder  Foote,  settled  1861,  died  1889. 
The  present  minister  was  installed  in  1895.  These  men  have 
all  belonged  to  the  Unitarian  fellowship  ;  and  the  church,  while 
entirely  independent  in  every  respect,  is  commonly  spoken  of  as 
a  Unitarian  church.  It  may  be  noted  that  the  vestments  of  the 
minister  remain  the  same  as  when  the  church  was  founded,  and 
are  a  copy  of  the  dress  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  of  that  period. 
Strangers  often  ask  to  see  the  pew  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 
It  was  No.  102  in  the  south  gallery.  Charles  Sumner's  pew 
was   No.    74. 

The  full  story  of  the  life  of  this  interesting  church,  and  of  its 
later  connection  with  the  colonial  history  of  Massachusetts,  is 
told  in  two  volumes  published  by  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  called 
the  "Annals  of  King's  Chapel,"  by  Henry  Wilder  F^oote. 


THE  FIRST  KING'S  CHAPEL. 


